August 9, 2006

killin me

so i have taken to wearing a respro mask on my commute. even in centennial park there are some people who infuriate me by driving the dogs to the park for a walk or driving the 4wd for a jog or a ride even though they live around the corner.

now i can’t ride without my mask because the air is so disgusting, the militant look kind of appeals to me on one level but i feel as though i am alienating myself from my fellow citizen just because i don’t want breath disgusting fumes. good masks though, i am using a city and the techno is meant to have an even better filter so might upgrade when this filter runs out

on other exciting news, jackie chan rules, project a was the film with a the bicycle chase seen the other week. but i have been missing the jim jarmusch retrospective, that might be a bit too much tv anyway.

A 2004 Sydney study, published in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, looked at the exposure levels of commuters using different modes of transport – including cycling and driving – to five air pollutants (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and nitrogen dioxide).

The study found that motorists registered the highest levels for all pollutants except nitrogen dioxide, while “cycling commuters had significantly lower levels of exposure to benzene compared with car commuters”.

Dr Chris Rissel of the Central Sydney Area Health Service, one of the authors of the study, explains: “There are two competing explanations for our findings: the tunnel effect, where everybody is travelling in the same polluted corridors, and the leaking of the exhaust and fuel systems into vehicles.”